Since many of you reached out about appointments to boards & commissions, I'd like to reprint my written thoughts that I read during Call to Council tonight:
I'd like to read from an excerpt from an email submitted to the city by Ferndale resident & Commission member Augusto “Mike” Flores:
𝑇𝑜 𝑏𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑛, 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑. 𝐼𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑏𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑙 𝑆𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝐷𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐴𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝐵𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑑.
𝑇𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑒, 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠. 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑠 𝐷𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 6, 2019 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝐽𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑦 26, 2020 𝑏𝑜𝑡ℎ 𝑏𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒 “𝑛𝑜 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠” 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝐹𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 & 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑒.
𝐸𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑙𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡. 𝐸𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜: 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦, 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑦𝑖𝑠𝑚/𝑏𝑖𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦.
--
I want to commend Mike for urging us to accountability, and I want to share a quote from a mentor of mine, Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall, who recently transitioned from her role as Chief Medical Officer at Pfizer:
𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁.
During my campaign this past year, it was clear that the city was facing serious trust issues. I felt it too. My own experience applying to boards and commissions within the city was sub-par, and the lack of communication and transparency in the process left me feeling voiceless and powerless to be involved in more meaningful & impactful ways. I certainly didn’t feel the value of inclusiveness that we as a city support.
As such, one of the first things I did after being elected was reach out to our City Manager and City Clerk for a current copy of all boards and commissions and their current members so that I could get a better feel for opportunities for others to engage.
I want to thank Lena at the DDA for taking time to talk to me Friday, to review the process by which she receives & reviews applications, and for going above and beyond to investigating and determining we were in jeopardy of falling below the limit of members needed on the DDA board. I want to thank Mayor Piana for taking time to field my concerns, and for providing feedback. I also want to thank Sarah Brown and Dennis Whittie for taking time to talk, to listen to my concerns about the process, and for being so gracious about my stance.
We have to do better. We know that. Our City Manager has identified information gaps, processes rife for improvement, and action items to correct them. I personally think, for the sake of simplicity, tabling the civil service board appointment tonight allows us to communicate the vacancy on the city website, through multiple communication channels, and ultimately provide at least 2 weeks to allow other interested parties to apply. Again, to be clear, this is not about the people- it’s about the process and perception.
rust is earned, and with some tweaks to improve transparency I’m confident we’ll earn it again.
Comments